A trailer fire returning from last week’s IndyCar test at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. didn’t defeat Ed Carpenter Racing. Instead, they overcame the adversity that hit them.

Roughly 20 miles west of Flagstaff, Ariz., a rear trailer brake caught fire and all equipment on board was barely saved from going entirely up in flames. As they were outside town, ECR team manager Tim Broyles estimated it took 19 minutes for the fire department to show up, and had it been 10 minutes later, it would have been a total loss.

“We found out about the fire at 4:45 a.m. CDT when we landed in Chicago after the Fontana test,” Broyles explained in a team release. “When we got the first call, the trailer was still on fire. The truck and trailer were quite a ways out of town. So we were very fortunate that we didn’t have a lot more damage than we did.”

The team’s Fontana car received some smoke damage so needed to be repainted and rebuilt. Ed Carpenter said the team has taken just one No. 20 Fuzzy’s Vodka Chevrolet to Houston for this weekend’s doubleheader.

Support has come from up and down the IndyCar paddock, notably Andretti Autosport, whose truck stopped to help take some of the ECR equipment back to base in Indianapolis. Dreyer & Reinbold Racing, which has been sidelined from IndyCar competition since the Indianapolis 500, will provide the trailer, fueling rig, golf cart and a few other items in Houston, according to Broyles.

“It has been a tough week for the ECR/Fuzzy Vodka team, to say the least,” said Carpenter, the defending Fontana race winner. “The trailer fire in Arizona last Wednesday made everything a real scramble to get ready for the Houston race. But I’m so proud of this team and how they came together to get things cleaned up and prepared. Luckily, we were able to salvage a lot of things from the fire. It was a massive cleanup operation for the guys as well as they having to prepare the Houston race car.”